Tigers` Terrell In Control Of Sox This Time

Walt Terrell is 33, a journeyman, an ex-Met, ex-Padre, ex-Yankee and an ex-Pirate working in his second hitch with the Detroit Tigers.

Terrell went into Tuesday night`s game in Comiskey Park with a 10-year major-league won-lost record of 100-110 and a 1991 record of 8-10 with a 4.41 earned-run average.

So, after Terrell blanked the sagging White Sox 5-0 on a diet of six well-spaced hits, dropping them 4 1/2 games behind AL West-leading Minnesota, the big question among 34,404 paying customers and 6,312 straight-A students, who usually know the answers, was, ``How did he do it?``

``Location and changing speeds,`` said Sox manager Jeff Torborg, relying on a couple of oft-heard but appropriate cliches. ``He even changed speeds on his fastball.``

Over in the Tigers` clubhouse, a reporter was offering yet another cliche explanation to Terrell.

``You seemed to be in total control out there,`` he began.

``No, not total control,`` corrected Terrell. ``I got away with some mistakes, and we made double plays. (Dan) Pasqua hit that one 800 miles. Fortunately for me, he hit it 800 miles straight up.``

Terrell, now 9-10 with an ERA trimmed to 4.17, referred to Pasqua`s tremendously high fly that Rob Deer caught near the wall in right for the third out after Frank Thomas had doubled in the sixth.

The Tigers turned three double plays. Craig Grebeck lined into one in the third after Ron Karkovice led off the inning with a double. Robin Ventura grounded sharply into two double plays, one after Tim Raines` leadoff bunt single in the first and the other after Raines` single in the eighth.

But Terrell had more going for him than good fortune and good defense. He never permitted more than one hit in an inning. He threw 120 pitches. In the fourth he threw 20, including 11 called balls, and he never threw more than 15 pitches or more than six called balls in any of the other innings.

That pitch count helped explain his success, Terrell said.

``It means that I wasn`t getting behind so I`d have to pitch deep into the count,`` he said. ``I`m not good enough to do that and get away with it. I can`t paint corners with breaking pitches``

Last Wednesday in Detroit, Terrell lasted only 3 1/3 innings against the White Sox. He was ripped for eight hits and six runs. Six days later, he went the route and shut out the same team on six hits.

The difference? Control. The ``location`` Torborg mentioned. Pitching where it`s smart to pitch against a team trained to hit as the Sox do.

``I have no idea from one start to another how I`ll do,`` Terrell said.

``If I knew that, I`d be very rich. The last time against this team, I was behind the whole game.

``This team likes to dive out across the plate after pitches,`` said Terrell of a Sox hitting technique. ``Tonight I was able to come in on them, jam them. And I kept pitches down most of the night.``

Three of the six Sox hits, as noted, immediately preceded Tiger double plays. The other three were two-out singles by Thomas and Karkovice in the fourth and seventh, respectively, and Thomas` double that immediately preceded Pasqua`s high, high, harmless ``800-mile`` fly to right.

Sox starter Charlie Hough (7-7) deserved a better fate. Lloyd Moseby, just released from the disabled list, lined a first-inning pitch over the right-field wall for the only run Terrell needed.

The Tigers touched Hough for three runs in the third, an inning that began with plate umpire Dale Ford ruling Tony Phillips was hit with a pitch the Sox claim did not hit him. Hough then blanked the Tigers until Milt Cuyler`s third hit, a triple, drove home Travis Fryman in the eighth.

Those last couple of names, Cuyler and Fryman, along with those of Terrell and a few other members of the no-name pitching staff, are seldom cited as reasons that manager Sparky Anderson`s team remains in the AL East pennant hunt (2 1/2 games behind first-place Toronto). Everybody knows about the sluggers: Cecil Fielder, Deer, Mickey Tettleton, Lou Whitaker.

``They not only can club the ball,`` said Torborg, whose Sox have lost eight of their last 10 games, ``but that young center-fielder (Cuyler) can run down balls and can fly. And that young shortstop Fryman has filled in for Alan Trammell. They get pitching, too.``

``At times our starters have pitched well,`` Terrell said. ``Some guys on our team have pitched very well. But you never read that. You read that we score so many runs.

``But I don`t care. I`ll read the paper anyway, and I know what happened in the game.``